Poems on the Underground was launched in 1986. The programme was the brainchild of American writer Judith Chernaik, whose aim was to bring poetry to the wide ranging audience of passengers on the Underground. In 2000, more than 3.5 million journeys were made each day.
Judith Chernaik, together with poets Cicely Herbert and Gerard Benson, continue to select poems for inclusion in the programme.
New sets of poems generally appear three times each year and are displayed in advertising spaces within the trains.
Contemporary and historical poems are included as the programme aims to give a wide variety of choice and style. Works from established and emerging poets from around the world are used.
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Prayer
Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieves of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.
Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.
Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.
Darkness outside, Inside, the radio’s prayer–
Rockll. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.
The Quin twins have come a long way from their acoustic folk music beginnings. Their new album Sainthood sounds more like indie rock. As a fan, it took me a while to warm up to their rather experimental (by experimental I mean with electronic add-ons and almost punk vibe) album. But it grew on me, and now I’m loving it.
Sainthood marks the first time Tegan and Sara write songs together in over ten years. Chris Walla from Death Cab of Cutie, producer of the twins’ previous album The Con, also makes a comeback in Sainthood.
It was almost a dream come true to see Tegan and Sara perform live. I got to see them on Friday night at the London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Compared to many other artists, they don’t quite put up a performance. They even warn in advance that they don’t do encores because it always feels awkward. But for fans, their regular quips on diarrhea cramps, druggie pasts, queerness, and slamming doors growing up are enough.
“I know it turns you off when I get talking like a teen,” goes a line from On Directing, a song off Sainthood. The twins may have turned 30 this year but talking like teens is still their trademark. Their concert was sold out. I guess the audience that night was not the least bit turned off.
“There’ll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover tomorrow
Just you wait and see.” — Vera Lynn, White Cliffs of Dover
After spending a morning in Canterbury puttering around the city and reliving Chaucer’s famous tales, I boarded a bus to Dover. When I asked for directions to the cliffs, the man at the tourist information office asked if I wanted to climb the cliffs or just look at them. I answered the latter. I had almost three hours to walk by the seaside, catch a glimpse of the White Cliffs, take some good photographs, and head back to the city center before dark.
When I got to the seaside and saw the majestic cliffs, I felt instantly drawn. My instinct was to get as near to the cliffs as possible. This led to a gradual climb. Almost halfway up, I decided to go all the way. It was certainly worth the climb, slippery paths, dark skies, extreme winds and all. And I made it back down right at dusk.
By far the best meal I’ve had in London was dinner at The Ledbury restaurant on Ledbury Road in Notting Hill. The Ledbury received a Michelin Star and won London Restaurant of the Year in 2006. The interiors of the restaurant are nothing special but the food and service are impeccable. The richness of the food made us heady by the end of the night, but it was all worth it.
Pre-starter: beet root meringue with goat cheese mousse (foreground), beet root meringue with foie gras (background)
Pre-starter: soft boiled quail egg in Greek pastry, cream sauce, and truffle shavings
Starter: Flame grilled mackerel with cured mackerel, avocado and shiso
Main: roast cornish cod with grilled Leeks, hand rolled macaroni and truffle purée
Pre-dessert: cream with rhubarb jelly and rhubarb foam
The past few weeks have been very environmentally frustrating and, in many ways, disappointing. If passing roads and rivers still clogged by trash carried in by Ondoy is not upsetting enough, lately I’ve been witnessing a lot of insensitivity (for lack of a better word).
My rant starts here. Inhale.
My mom and I had brunch at the Legaspi Market last Sunday. Instead of enjoying a morning of good food and fresh produce, I ended up getting irked at the increasing amount of trash around us. Practically every stall I wanted to buy from sold their food in styrofoam containers. A few stalls offered a paper plate option. Which made me wonder: why don’t they just serve food in paper plates and have styrofoam (or something else more environmentally friendly) as the second option? Most people find a table in the market and eat their food there anyway. I ended up foregoing the Chinese lumpia I was eyeing from the moment we got to the market because they couldn’t serve it to me in anything but a styrofoam plate. Instead, I bought some Indonesian food from a stall that was willing to lend me a ceramic plate and cutlery.
I think it’s safe to assume that people who frequent the Legaspi Market are well educated. I’d like to believe there is some consciousness among them of where their solid waste goes and what negative effects it has on the environment. But let’s not put the spotlight just on them. I see the same thing happening in my school (which is the country’s premiere state university!) and in my neighborhood. It really frustrates and disappoints me to no end that many of the educated and privileged cannot sacrifice some convenience for the environment.
I was seventeen when I decided never to have children of my own because I didn’t think any child deserved to grow up in this kind of environment. Bringing another human being into this world would also mean another person demanding a share of our finite natural resources. It was also at seventeen when I first took driving lessons and decided not to drive a car unless absolutely necessary. There’s no shame in getting around in a jeepney or a bus or a train. If you think otherwise then you just insulted 90% of our country’s population. Five years down the line, I still stand by my decisions. And at the rate we’re going, that doesn’t look like it’s about to change.
Maybe I’m being just too uptight, being a prude. Maybe I’m expecting too much. I might even be acting self righteous. But in just a little over a month, we have had devastating typhoons, a killer flood, landslides, and a whale shark death. Really, what other warning do we need?
Questions about issues of poverty, hunger, education, housing, and the like are always asked during interviews and presidential debates. Here are others that I want answered.
How do you plan to resolve the issue of the National Artist award?
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest), rate the response of the government to typhoons Pepeng and Ondoy. If you were president, what would you have done differently?
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest), how environmentally friendly are you? Name as many concrete and specific personal actions you have taken to preserve our environment.
What is your stand on the Reproductive Health Bill?
Do you think the aims of separatist groups in Mindanao are legitimate? What specific measures will you take to address the conflict in Mindanao?
Bonus question: What is in the Philippine agenda for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December and what is your take on this?
On that chilly Sunday night in January, we gathered in the garden and lit candles. For two minutes the breeze ceased, as if the north wind was one with us in silence, in prayer.
We mourned the thousands of lives lost in that age-old battle which again sparked while we danced with sparklers and feasted on roast meat halfway around the world.
To us they were nameless but not faceless. Under kippahs and beneath hijabs were mothers, fathers, children, just like us. With them we did not share a piece of land or a leader, but we agreed that being members of the same race was enough.
Then news of your death. We all knew it was coming but we later realized that knowing wouldn’t help ease the pain. Last week. I’m sorry no one told you. She didn’t want anyone to know.
We shared a fence, a fondness for a TV series, a recipe for croquetas, a foolproof way of boiling eggs, memories of afternoons under the sun. And you didn’t want us to know.
Tonight a candle will be lit in the same garden for someone not nameless nor faceless to me. The breeze will cease for the wind will agree that yours is indeed a life worth remembering.
My mom and I were driving in Manila this afternoon. Knowing Assad Mini Mart, an Indian ethnic grocery on United Nations Avenue, was just around the corner, we did a little detour to get some newly cooked samosa. Metro Manila traffic was light all day so we wondered why there was a build up of cars about half a kilometer from Assad.
Then we started seeing men wearing white shirts and pants and orange turbans sweeping the streets. They were followed by a truck carrying five men with long beards wearing what looked like orange robes, and a float full of flowers. Hundreds of Indians followed the float on foot. Women in saris accompanied children while men gave away candies, apples, and drinks to onlookers and passers by. In less than ten minutes, we received six packs of juice, two apples, two packs of crackers, a pack of biscuits, a bottle of water, and handfuls of candy.
It turns out we had just witnessed the celebration of the 540th anniversary of Guru Nanak Jayanti.
Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh faith, was born in the month of Kartik (October/November), and his birthday is known as Guru Nanak Jayanti. He was born in 1469 A.D. at Tolevandi some 30 miles from Lahore. The anniversaries of Sikh Guru’s are known as Gurpurabs (festivals) and are celebrated with devotion and dedication.
GurPurabs mark the culmination of Prabhat Pheris, the early morning procession that start from the gurdwaras (Sikh temples) and then go around localities singing ’shabads’ (hymns)…On the day of the festival, the Granth Sahib is also carried in a procession on a float, decorated with flowers, throughout a village or city. Five armed guards, who represent the Panj Pyares, head the procession carrying Nishan Sahibs (the Sikh flag). Local bands playing religious music form a special part of the procession.
Free sweets and langar or community lunches are also offered to everyone irrespective of religious faith. Men, women, and children, participate in this karseva as service to the community, cook food and distribute it in the ‘Guru ka Langar’, with the traditional ‘Karah Prasad’.
On our way home, we saw a vehicle from the procession giving away food and drinks to random people on the street. I would have been happy with just a samosa, but thanks to the generosity of the Sikh community in Manila, I got my samosa AND a load of goodies. Who needs trick or treat?
